CXL Institute CRO Minidegree Review | Week 1 of 12

About this series

On 23rd March, 2020, in quarantine indefinitely due to the UK’s (perfectly reasonable) nationwide lockdown, I was lucky enough to gain a scholarship to the CXL Institute’s CRO Minidegree program for 12 weeks.

The CXL Institute CRO Minidegree Program

Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) refers to the art and science of converting website/app visitors into customers.

 The CXL Institute Conversion Optimisation Minidegree is an online training program designed to be “the most thorough CRO training in the world”. It is taught by CXL Institute’s in-house staff (including its founder Peep Laja) as well as a collection of the leading marketing practitioners in the business.

In its own words, CXL Institute describes the key objectives for students of this course as being to “learn how to convert your traffic into customers, run more successful experiments, and get the skills to deliver consistent revenue gains on any website you work on.”

The approximate total time for this course is: 72 hrs 48 mins.

 You can find more information here: https://cxl.com/institute/programs/conversion-optimization/

 A Note on the Structure of this Series

In this weekly series, I will be documenting everything that I have learned in my CRO Minidegree program in the preceding week. To provide some structure, I will include the following information in my review of each course:

-      The Instructor

-      Total time

-      Difficulty/Skill Level (on a simple scale of Basic, Intermediate and Advanced)

-      Key Takeaways

 I will be providing an update on my progression through the course syllabus (outlined and updated for Week 1 below).

In the weekly wrap up I will also be outlining the following:

-      What I Loved (what pleasantly surprised me, ‘aha!’ moments, what other courses wouldn’t provide)

-      What Could be Better (constructive feedback based on my own personal opinion)

Finally, I will finish off each week’s update with a study plan for the following week.

CRO Minidegree Course Syllabus & Progression

(I haven't been able to figure out a way to import tables from Word into the LinkedIn article publishing interface. If anyone has any tips, please do share! My apologies for the scruffiness of the table images below)

Course 1: CRO Foundations

 Instructor: Peep Laja ( https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/peeplaja/ )

Total time: 45 Minutes

 Difficulty/Skill Level: Basic

Key Takeaways

 Peep starts the course off with a key ‘big picture’ point, which is that it isn’t just about ‘conversion rate optimisation’. If we only wanted to boost conversion rates, we could do that by simply slashing prices, however this wouldn’t exactly be good for our business. The main objective is business growth.

 We then move onto the ‘mindset of an optimiser’, which revolves around 3 key principles:

1. Don’t cling to old methods- Experience is valuable and may help you with pattern recognition and quicker/better decision-making, however, what worked 2 years ago may not work today. This is one of the reasons why ‘best practice’ is at best an initial starting point for finding a solution- it isn’t a one solution fits all type of scenario.
2. Ego is the enemy- Forget your ego and focus on the truth. The truth lies in the data, assuming you know how to derive the truth from the data without biases.
3. Be focused on uncovering problems- Focus your energy on problem-solving and the specific issues/challenges related to the website/app that you are working on. 

 There is also an interesting connection made between CRO and the ‘Lean Startup’ methodology:

 The Lean Startup methodology has what is called the ‘Build, Measure, Learn’ framework. Essentially it refers to continuous improvement through rapid iteration, driven by consumer interaction/usage insights/feedback. This is very similar to the constant ‘test and learn’ methodology employed in CRO.

 A Typical CRO Process:

 In this section, Peep breaks down the 12 individual steps involved in a typical CRO process:

1. Set objectives
2. Ask all the relevant business questions and determine what you would like to find out through data
3. Data gathering
4. Derive Insights from the Data
5. Identify the issues/problems that need to be resolved in the UX
6. Hypothesise test solutions to the problems
7. Design the solutions in wireframes
8. Technical integration and create a UAT version of the test page
9. Launch the A/B test
10. Assess test results to determine which tests won/lost
11. Analyse test results for deeper insights/key learnings/new hypotheses
12. Document learnings

We then move on to the ‘Hierarchy of Conversion Optimisation’, which is illustrated in the diagram below:

I found this to be a nice way to visualize the different levels of optimization within the broader process of CRO. It is also a nice reminder that before we get into sophisticated, behavioral psychology tactics and copywriting, etc. we need to make sure our fundamentals are in place, i.e. the website is functional, accessible and usable.

Next up is ‘Conversion Rate 101’, for which my key takeaways were as follows: 

?     Remember that conversion rate on its own is not a particularly useful metric- it could easily be gamed by lowering prices / getting your mum to buy something on your website, etc. It is business growth that we are most interested in.

?     This means that there are often other equally/more important KPIs that we are interested in such as Average Revenue per Customer, Customer Lifetime Value, Average Order Value, etc.

 It makes sense for ‘Analytics Fundamentals’ to be included in this foundational section.

Key takeaways for me on this one:

?     Every metric that you report on needs to pass the ‘so what?’ test. For example:

“Our blog pages have the highest exit rates on our websites.”

 “So what?”

 “We need to make it easier for people to find more blogs/pages on our website from blogposts so that they spend more time on our site.”

“Why does that matter?”

 “We know that there is a strong correlation between spending more time on our website and spending more money with us.”

 While correlation is not necessarily causation, this example shows the types of questions we must ask of each metric we are reporting on and more importantly using to inform our optimisation efforts.

?     Averages lie. Instead, look at the data by segments.

?     Rule out outliers and statistically insignificant stuff (e.g. analysing bounce rates on pages with less than 1000 visits).

Course 2: Best Practices

Instructor: Peep Laja ( https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/peeplaja/ )

 Total time: 1 hr 30 mins

 Difficulty/Skill Level: Basic

 Key Takeaways

The most important point for me in this section comes in the intro itself:

Best practices do have their place in an optimiser’s arsenal- however, only as starting points.

Unfortunately, as I know from my own 10+ years experience as an agency-side digital marketer, most agency marketers don’t bother going much further than best practices when it comes to providing optimisation recommendations to their clients.

 I suspect that most mediocre in-house marketers are quite similar in this regard.

 Best practices can help us with pattern recognition when it comes to diagnosing optimisation challenges, shape our hypotheses and inform our testing plan.

 However, ultimately our optimisations should be based on first party data rather than theory or best practice.

 I found this to be a very comprehensive course on Best Practices covering the following areas:

·     Web Forms

·     eCommerce Category Pages

·     Buttons and Calls to Action

·     Fold and Page Length

·     eCommerce Signups

·     Incoming Phone Leads & Call Tracking

·     Principles of Persuasive Design

·     Typography and Content

·     Radical Redesign vs. Evolutionary Design

·     Homepages

·     Pricing and Pricing Pages

·     Website Speed Optimisation

·     Visual Hierarchy

·     FAQs on Websites

·     Importance of Visual Design

·     Internal Search

·     Shopping Cart Pages

·     eCommerce Checkout Pages

  I have developed fairly detailed notes on each of these sections- I won’t be sharing all of my notes here, however to give you an idea of the types of best practices I learned, here are a couple of examples:

 Fold and Page Length:

·     The further down the page you go, the less people will scroll or pay attention

·     Prioritise your content- serve the most important information first (rather than building up to it)

·     https://sessioncam.com/the-most-popular-type-of-web-site-heatmap/ is a good way of measuring not just user clicks but attention heat maps (according to Peep)

·     The fold isn’t just for homepage or conversion pages- it is for each and every page

 eCommerce Signups:

 ·     Don’t force users to sign up/register before they can purchase. Research shows that 1 in 4 users abandon a purchase if forced to sign up (old study): https://econsultancy.com/why-do-consumers-abandon-online-purchases/

·     Default to guest checkout and then offer the user the option of signing up after the purchase

·     Social logins work really well as they remove friction for the user, are GDPR compliant and can help the brand collect more data on the user / build smarter audience segments on social media platforms such as Facebook.

 Course 3: Intro to Conversion Copywriting

Instructor: Peep Laja ( https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/peeplaja/ )

 Total time: 1 hr 30 mins

 Difficulty/Skill Level: Basic

 Key Takeaways

 Peep outlines the six steps of an effective copywriting process:

 1. Research: customer, product and competition.

2. Outline and guideposts.

3. Draft copy.

4. Conversion boost.

5. Revise, rearrange.

6. Test.

 Research

 Neuromarketing research tells us that differentiating our claims is the key to talking to the old brain, the decision-making part of our brain. Our whole business identity should be different from the competition, and the claims we’re making about our product should stand out.

 Get out of the office

Pick the last 10 to 20 customers (who still remember their purchasing experiences), and ask them detailed questions about who they are, how our product helps them, what their key pain points are, etc. (there are a number of specific questions listed in the course)

 Outline and Guideposts

 Homepage Copy Outline Template:

 Headline:

What is the end-benefit you’re offering, in one short sentence. Can mention the product and/or the customer. Attention grabber.

 Sub-headline or a two-to-three sentence paragraph:

A specific explanation of what you do/offer, for whom, and why is it useful.

 Bullet points:

List the key benefits or features.

 Product Page Copy Outline Template:

 A product page is where you sell the value of your product and where the user takes action (adds to cart, sign up, makes a purchase, etc.).

 1. Name of the product.

2. Value proposition: what’s the end-benefit of this product and who is it for?

3. Specific and clear overview of what the product does and why is that good (features and benefits).

4. What’s the pain that it solves? Description of the problem.

5. List of everything in the product (e.g. curriculum of the course, list of every item in the package, etc.).

6. Technical information: parameters, what do you get and how does it work?

7. Objection handling. Make a list of all possible FUDs (fears, uncertainties, doubts) and address them.

8. Bonuses (what you get on top of the offer).

9. Money-back guarantee (+ return policy).

10. Price.

11. Call to action.

12. Expectation setting: what happens after you buy?

 Draft Copy

 How Much Information Should I Provide?

 Tests have shown that 79% of people don’t read, they just skim. However, 16% read everything.

 Those 16% are your main target group, the most interested people. If people are not interested in what you are selling, it doesn’t matter how long or short your sales copy is. If they are interested, you should give them as much information as possible.

 Conversion Boost

?     Optimize for clarity – it’s plain obvious what you sell, why that is good and who it’s for

?     Optimize for information – no question unanswered

?     Persuasion boost – apply a persuasion technique that’s applicable for your particular context

 Note: The 'Revise and Rearrange' and ‘Test’ steps are self-explanatory.

 Wrap Up of Week 1

What I Loved

 ·     Even though the first few courses are focused on foundations and best practices, they didn’t feel like box-ticking exercises or fluff. There was good context provided as to where best practices fit into an optimiser’s arsenal and also what their limitations are.

·     I love the examples shared to illustrate best practices or foundational concepts. Importantly, not only do they tell you how to approach a challenge, they also tell you how not to approach it.

·     Peep’s communication style is very accessible and does not come across as overly technical / overcomplicated

·     The courses so far have been structured nicely, with clear objectives and broken down into manageable chunks.

What Could Be Better

Not a whole lot to criticise here, to be perfectly honest. Perhaps some more interactivity (e.g. pop quizzes) to check understanding may be good.

However, I believe courses later on in the program contain mini-exams. In the meantime, I will be checking my own understanding by using Anki flashcards (learn more here: https://apps.ankiweb.net/ )

Plan for Week 2

 I am already 10% of the way through the ‘Product messaging’ course, which is around 5 hrs in total, so I will be looking to complete that first.

 I would LOVE to be able to complete the Foundation section of the course this week, however, that would mean at least 20 hours of study time which may be challenging while still doing a full-time job.

I will still give it my best shot and try to complete everything through to at least halfway through the ‘Google Analytics for Beginners’ course as per the syllabus listed above.

 Thanks for taking an interest in my learning experience. I look forward to sharing more next week!

 Ali